The invention relates to improvements in the functional design of electrical insertion devices such as key-like devices, credit card-like devices, identification tag devices and similar access and/or identification devices adapted for insertion into electrical or other contacting receptacles or other interactive electrical devices and systems. The invention is in one sense a further development of the inventions of U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,569 issued Oct. 27, 1981, entitled, "Microelectronic Memory Key With Receptacle and Systems Therefore; U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,125, issued Apr. 20, 1982, entitled "Improved Microelectronic Memory Key With Receptacle and Systems Therefor"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,966 issued Apr. 12, 1983 entitled "Receptacle For Electronic Information Key", U.S. Pat No. 4,436,993, issued Mar. 13, 1984 entitled Electronic Key; U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,456, issued Jun. 11, 1985 entitled "Electronic Tag Receptacle and Reader" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,573 issued Mar. 25, 1986, entitled "Portable Electronic Information Devices and Method of Manufacture", all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Electrical devices of various types have been proposed in which a master circuit or electrical operating system of some kind, such as a computer system, is activated by use of a portable device which is physically contacted to or otherwise combined with the electrical system, as by insertion of the device into a slot or the like, to make electrical contact or connection with the system. This invention is concerned broadly with such portable devices and with such systems. However, it is specifically concerned with improved and simplified insertion access and/or identification devices per se which are inserted into the electrical receptacle of said systems or otherwise connected thereto. The devices may carry an electronic circuit means which may take the form of a data-carrying embedded circuit component but in their preferred form do not.